A fairlead, such as a hawse fairlead, may be used to guide and restrict lateral movement of a rope and/or cable, as the rope and/or cable is pulled through the fairlead. Specifically, the rope and/or cable may extend through an opening in the fairlead and lateral movement of the rope and/or cable may be constrained to within the opening. Fairleads may be used in winches, hoists, boats, and other applications where a rope and/or cable is subjected to bi-directional motion. In particular, fairleads may be mounted to a device to guide a rope and/or cable of the device. For example, fairleads may be mounted to a vehicle, in front of a winch, to guide the rope and/or cable of the winch.
When the rope and/or cable is pulled through the fairlead, it may contact the surfaces of the opening. The surfaces of the fairlead opening may therefore be prone to abrading and degradation due to prolonged contact with the rope and/or cable. As such, some approaches aimed at reducing degradation of the fairlead may include constructing the fairlead from a durable material such as a metal (e.g., aluminum) or metal composite.
However, the inventors herein have recognized several problems with such fairleads. As one example, constructing the fairlead from metal and/or metal composite may increase the weight of the fairlead. Heavier fairleads may exert more of a load and strain on the device to which they are mounted (e.g., front a vehicle). As such, fairleads constructed from metal or metal composite may lead to premature degradation of the device to which they are mounted.
In one example, the above issues may be at least partially addressed by a fairlead comprising a frame including a central opening and comprising a first material, and a wear insert positioned within the central opening and comprising a second material, different than the first material. Specifically, in some examples the first material may be less dense than the second material. For example, the first material may comprise a composite polymer and the second material may comprise a metal or metal composite.
In this way, by constructing the fairlead frame from a lighter composite polymer, while fitting the opening of the fairlead with a metal wear insert, the durability of the fairlead may be maintained relative to fairleads constructed entirely from metal, while the weight of the fairlead may be reduced. Specifically, by including the metal wear insert at the fairlead/rope interface, abrading and degradation of the fairlead caused by the rope may be reduced, while the weight of the fairlead may be reduced by constructing the frame from a composite polymer. By reducing the weight of the fairlead, strain and load on a device to which the fairlead is coupled may be reduced.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.
The figures are drawn to scale, although other relative dimensions may be used, if desired.